by Bruce Thornton<\/p>\n
Frontpage Magazine<\/em><\/p>\n Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is under attack for speaking an important truth about the Arab-Israeli conflict. At a fundraiser in Jerusalem on Monday, Romney made the obvious, even banal, point about the economic disparity between nations. Speaking of Israel and the Palestinian-run West Bank, Romney said, \u201cCulture makes all the difference.\u201d Rejecting the geographic determinism that claims geography, climate, and species distribution account for the greater power and wealth of the West, Romney added, \u201cyou look at Israel and you say you have a hard time suggesting that all of the natural resources on the land could account for all the accomplishment of the people here.\u201d Romney\u2019s point was part of a larger discussion of global economic disparity that he has brought up previously in numerous speeches and in his book\u00a0No Apology<\/em>, and that scholars like David Landes and Thomas Sowell have developed in their work.<\/p>\n When it comes to Israel, however, no comment, no matter how sound its scholarly pedigree, that challenges the orthodox narrative favored by the Arabs and their Western shills will be allowed to pass without attack. Saeb Erekat, an aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, responded, \u201cIt is a racist statement and this man doesn\u2019t realize that the Palestinian economy cannot reach its potential because there is an Israeli occupation.\u201d Hanan Ashrawi, a Palestinian legislator and official in the Palestine Liberation Organization, claimed the Palestinians \u201chave to build an economy when they have no freedom of movement, no human rights, no fundamental freedoms.\u201d International reporting on the remarks backed up the Palestinian interpretation by citing the \u201coccupation\u201d and \u201cblockade\u201d as the real explanation for why the Palestinians are failing economically.<\/p>\n These reactions are drearily predictable, including the incoherent charge of \u201cracism\u201d against somebody making a cultural argument. More important, once again Palestinian revanchist obsessions, anti-Semitism, and the jihadist death cult are ignored, and the reasons for Israeli defensive measures passed over, while Western materialist obsessions like \u201cracism\u201d \u201ccolonialism,\u201d and \u201cnational aspirations\u201d are used to explain destructive behavior the origins of which lie in cultural and religious dysfunctions.<\/p>\n Thus if you want to explain Palestinian economic backwardness, start with the Arab rejection of Israel\u2019s legitimacy, one grounded in Islamic doctrine and culture. For all the duplicitous talk of the \u201ctwo-state solution,\u201d a critical mass of Arabs simply does not recognize Israel\u2019s right to exist. Nor is this rejection a consequence of an \u201cillegal occupation\u201d of an \u201cArab homeland\u201d by neo-colonialist Jews abetted by Western imperialists. When four Arab armies invaded Israel in 1948, its purpose was not to create a Palestinian nation, something that has no historical reality. Rather, after they destroyed Israel, the aggressor nations planned to carve up among themselves what was left of mandatory Palestine. This rejection of Israel has been a constant over the last 60 years, as historian Efraim Karsh points out: \u201cHad Arafat set the PLO from the start on the path to peace and reconciliation, instead of turning it into one of the most murderous terrorist organizations in modern times, a Palestinian state could have been established in the late 1960s or the early 1970s; in 1979 as a corollary to the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty; by May 1999 as part of the Oslo Process; or at the very latest with the Camp David summit of July 2000.\u201d<\/p>\n The fact is, Israel was and is an abomination to Muslims not because there is no Palestinian state, but because it is a country comprising what Muslims considerdhimmi<\/em>, a conquered inferior people whose lands and lives are forfeit to Muslims by decree of Allah. Nor does it help that Muslims especially loath Jews, hatred based on the authority of the Koran, Hadiths, and 14 centuries of Islamic theology and jurisprudence. Hence the rank anti-Semitism rampant among Palestinian Arabs, who routinely and publicly indulge invective and genocidal rhetoric redolent of\u00a0Der St\u00fcrmer<\/em>. The continuing existence in the Middle East of an economically and militarily powerful Israel, populated by despised\u00a0dhimmi<\/em>, is a daily humiliation for the peoples who consider themselves the \u201cbest of nations\u201d destined to rule the world. Ending the \u201coccupation\u201d or lifting the defensive blockade of Gaza wouldn\u2019t change this irrational, religiously sanctioned hatred.<\/p>\n This deep-seated hatred, justified by religion, is also manifested in Palestinian culture by the cult of martyrdom, murder, and death that has legitimized terrorist attacks on Israelis for decades. Rather than promoting secular education, the acquisition of entrepreneurial skills, and the creation of a legal system conducive to economic development, too many Palestinians have instead financed, idolized, and reinforced with public honors the \u201cmartyrs\u201d who blow up themselves and innocent Israelis on the promise of paradise. A people who dress up preschoolers as suicide bombers and make heroes out of murderers have other priorities than increasing exports, growing new businesses, or increasing GDP. Nor is this sickening death-cult the preoccupation of a fringe. A few years ago, alleged \u201cmoderate\u201d Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas named a public square in Ramallah after a terrorist who in 1978 killed 38 Israelis, including 13 children. Such hatred is a cultural dysfunction inimical to the cosmopolitan tolerance necessary in a globalized economy.<\/p>\n The decades of terrorist assaults on Israel bring us to the truth always ignored by those who explain Palestinian dysfunction by decrying \u201cblockades\u201d and \u201coccupation.\u201d All these defensive measures exist for one reason: the intransigence of Palestinians whose religiously inspired hatred of Israel and Jews is so great that they will not just send their children to murder Israelis, but do so knowing they will provoke the responses that contribute to their failure to develop their economy and society. Those who complain about the blockade of Gaza never confront the simple truth that if Hamas stopped raining rockets on Israel and attempting to export even more lethal weapons, this blockade wouldn\u2019t be necessary. And if economic development had been a priority for the Gazans, they wouldn\u2019t have destroyed and plundered the commercial greenhouses left behind when the Israelis were evacuated in 2005. Instead of taking over and exploiting this industry, the terrorist outfits put all their energy into manufacturing more rockets and smuggling in more weapons.<\/p>\n These are the facts about the condition of the Palestinians that are ignored by Arab propagandists and Western haters of Israel. Quite simply, if enough Palestinians had wanted to develop their society and economy, they would have long before now. Their opportunity came in 1993, when the Oslo accords transferred control over the West Bank to the Palestinian Authority, which was and continues to be financed by billions of aid from the West. With control and money, Palestinian leaders eager for economic development would have stopped terrorist attacks on Israel, which over time would have lessened the need for defensive measures like checkpoints and army patrols. They would have eradicated the cult of martyrdom from popular culture and school curricula. They would have passed laws that favored businesses, invited foreign investment, and promoted entrepreneurs. They would have built universities and other infrastructure. They would have created genuine democratic governance that respected human rights. And they would have taken measures to root out the government corruption and cronyism that have made billionaires of a few Palestinian \u201cleaders\u201d while the mass of people are compensated with hatred of Israel, genocidal anti-Semitism, and celebrations of terrorist murderers. But rather than doing all these things, the Palestinian leadership continued to send terrorists to kill thousands of Israelis in order to achieve their long-term goal of destroying Israel.<\/p>\n The reasons for this destructive behavior are obvious. For cultural and religious reasons, the Palestinians who want to destroy Israel outnumber those who want to create a state, live in peace, and provide prosperity to their people. That\u2019s the simple truth, one so toxic for the haters of Israel that any statement even indirectly alluding to it must be attacked, as Romney\u2019s was.<\/p>\n \u00a92012 Bruce S. Thornton<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Bruce Thornton Frontpage Magazine Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is under attack for speaking an important truth about the Arab-Israeli conflict. At a fundraiser in Jerusalem on Monday, Romney made the obvious, even banal, point about the economic disparity between nations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[152,22],"tags":[255,1058,133,149,1017,256,32,30,93,1060,162,58],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-8N","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1306,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/what-does-romney-really-think-about-vietnam\/","url_meta":{"origin":545,"position":0},"title":"What Does Romney Really Think About Vietnam?","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 23, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine Mitt Romney recently said\u00a0something\u00a0on\u00a0Fox News Sunday\u00a0that raises questions about his understanding of history and its pertinence for foreign policy. In the course of talking about the war in Iraq and the \u201clessons learned\u201d from that conflict and its \u201cerrors,\u201d Romney responded to a question\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":418,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-clear-alternatives-in-the-presidential-debate\/","url_meta":{"origin":545,"position":1},"title":"The Clear Alternatives in the Presidential Debate","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 6, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce Thornton FrontPage Magazine Forget all the pre-debate handicapping and advice about what Mitt Romney needed to do or what Barack Obama had to avoid. Last night\u2019s debate clarified the stark choice facing American voters on November 6. On the one hand, we heard a candidate who endorses limited\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":602,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-medias-racial-prison\/","url_meta":{"origin":545,"position":2},"title":"The Media’s Racial Prison","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 31, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce Thornton Frontpage Magazine Two incidents last week suggest once more that our confused, hypocritical, and politicized notions of race and relations will play a huge role in the presidential election. In the first, Virginia state senator L. Louise Lucas, part of Obama\u2019s \u201cTruth Team\u201d campaigning for the president\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3052,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/corrupt-language-breeds-bad-history-and-bad-policy\/","url_meta":{"origin":545,"position":3},"title":"Corrupt Language Breeds Bad History and Bad Policy","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 24, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton Advancing a Free Society As the history of communism and fascism both illustrate, modern political tyranny has relied on fabricated history to legitimize its claims and actions, and such history in turn relies on the debasement of language. Nowhere is this axiom more evident than in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Israel"","block_context":{"text":"Israel","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/israel\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7637,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/moral-equivalence-moral-idiocy\/","url_meta":{"origin":545,"position":4},"title":"Moral Equivalence, Moral Idiocy","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 8, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce Thornton \/\/ FrontPage Magazine Scenes all too familiar from the Arab conflict with Israel have followed the murder last Wednesday of a 16-year-old Palestinian, Mohammed Abu Khdeir. Mourners at his funeral\u00a0chanting the Muslim war-cry \u201cAllahu Akbar\u201d as they carry the boy\u2019s\u00a0open coffin, the crowd shouting slogans like \u201cIntifada\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Middle East"","block_context":{"text":"The Middle East","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/6b682571-56c4-4ad7-adc6-c762abf878af-620x372.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1360,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/romney-the-castor-oil-candidate\/","url_meta":{"origin":545,"position":5},"title":"Romney: The Castor-Oil Candidate","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 30, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Nominating Mitt Romney is sort of like taking Grandma\u2019s castor oil. Republicans are dreading the thought of downing their unpleasant-tasting medicine but worry that sooner or later they will have to. By any logical political calculus, the former Massachusetts governor is an ideal\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Campaign 2012"","block_context":{"text":"Campaign 2012","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/obama-administration\/campaign-2012\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":594,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545\/revisions\/594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}